A person voting in the parliamentary elections held on February 9, 2025. Illustrative photo from the archive.
The joint list of Serbian opposition parties in Kosovo, "Together We Win", has filed a complaint with the Electoral Panel for Complaints and Appeals, after the Central Election Commission did not certify it for participation in the June 7 parliamentary elections.
The CEC said that the list did not meet the legal criterion for the required number of signatures, pushing the initiative to appeal to the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel.
The "Together We Win" list includes candidates from six Serbian opposition political entities in Kosovo: the Serbian People's Movement, the Alliance of Kosovo, the New Face and Serbian Democracy, as well as the civic initiatives North for All and Roots.
From this list, they said on May 15 that they had submitted a complaint to the ECAP, evaluating the CEC's decision as "unprecedented", since according to them, the reason for refusal to participate in the elections was mentioned as the fact that the phone numbers of the signatories were not listed next to some names.
The announcement stated that the initiative has submitted around 1.400 signatures, which is more than the required legal criteria.
"In the interest of democracy and the right of citizens to choose," the "Together We Win" list expects its request to participate in the elections to be approved, the announcement said.
"This is not just our battle. This is a battle for the right of our people to have authentic and free representation, without tutors, without imposed intermediaries, and without imaginary deadlines that cannot be met," the announcement said.
Earlier, Ivan Vučković, from the civic initiative Rrnjët, told Radio Free Europe that part of the Serbian opposition has united to show that there is "another political voice", independent of the official politics of Pristina and Belgrade.
He also said that the goal was to offer members of the Serbian community "a different perception of political circumstances", as well as to be their "authentic voice" and a real alternative to the Serbian List and Nenad Rašić's Party for Freedom, Justice and Survival.
Otherwise, the Serbian List has operated with the support of Belgrade since its establishment, while Nenad Rašić is seen as a partner of the Albin Kurti Government, in which he served as Minister for Communities and Returns for two terms. These two parties have been certified to participate in the June elections.
Due to invalid signatures, the CEC has not even certified the political party SDA – Party of Democratic Action, which represents the Bosniak community in Kosovo.
Previously, the Serbian List was not certified for participation in the elections three times after objections from members of the Vetevendosje Movement at the CEC, who voted against it, facing criticism from the international community. However, these decisions were later overturned by the ECAP.
Three coalitions, 17 political parties and one independent candidate have been certified to participate in the upcoming elections on June 7.
Early parliamentary elections in Kosovo are being held after the Kosovo Assembly failed to elect a new president within the constitutional deadlines.
Political parties failed to reach a consensus on the election of the president after Vjosa Osmani's five-year term ended in early April.
These will be the third parliamentary elections in the last 18 months in Kosovo, following elections held in February and December 2025.REL
